News: L&D function not yet viewed as a strategic arm: Report

L&D function not yet viewed as a strategic arm: Report

A latest research by KNOLSKAPE throws light on the state of L&D in India, APAC and UAE and reveals that while 70% of L&D and talent leaders may ensure alignment of their L&D plan with firm strategy, mission and vision, only 65% of leaders believe their learning strategy is agile.

The learning and assessment platform, KNOLSKAPE has unveiled its recent report on L&D titled, “Bridging the Outcome Gap” for India, APAC and UAE and has made some interesting revelations. While 78 percent of respondents believe that their Learning and Development (L&D) plan is in line with their business strategy, only 56 percent of respondents agree that the L&D function is viewed as a strategic arm of their organization.

The report also reflects on the scalability of L&D solutions and emphasizes the importance of measuring L&D ROI.

Here are a few insights from the report:

L&D strategy: Alignment and scalability

The study gauged the intent of aligning learning needs to business requirements and found that over 70 percent of L&D and talent leaders may ensure alignment of their L&D plan with firm strategy, mission and vision, and help in syncing with the annual plan. Further, 75 percent of respondents agreed that L&D planning happens concurrently with the annual planning cycle. However, despite putting so much effort on planning, only 65 percent of leaders believe their learning strategy is agile and adaptive to changes in the external environment.

Is L&D considered a top strategic priority?

While skilling should be the key focus area in the rapidly changing business environment, L&D still misses to be in the top priority list for organizations. Only 56 percent of the professionals agree that the L&D function is viewed as a strategic arm of their organization and not merely a cost-center.

As per another interesting insight, the majority of the respondents (86 percent) said that when the Training Need Analysis (TNA) is crafted, inputs of key business stakeholders are taken into consideration. However, only 65 percent of them believe that leaders in their firm understand how training delivers intended business outcomes.

The link between learning interventions and performance

59 percent of the leaders feel that learning interventions at their organization help employees fulfill their current KPIs.

How are organizations calculating L&D ROI?

While up to 65 percent of professionals agree to utilize the 70-20-10 approach to learning, only 17% of respondents utilize up to level 4 (results) of Kirkpatrick’s model for learning impact assessment. Additionally, about 60 percent of formal learning in organizations is still facilitated through classroom learning or web-ex.

How capable are the L&D teams?

L&D professionals need to be equipped and trained in business nuances which can help them align business objectives with training needs of an organization. However, the report shows a gap. While 67 percent of the respondents agree that their L&D team can anticipate the training required to meet the future demands, only 44 percent of respondents feel the L&D team can state the financial performance of their company.

To be able to deliver a well-aligned business strategy, the L&D team needs to build its own capabilities and get familiar with the business nuances and the changing demands. The more aware the L&D teams, the more relevant the learning interventions may become.

Based on the inputs of the research, Rajiv Jayaraman, CEO and Co-founder KNOLSKAPE said, “L&D teams need to be empowered with the flexibility to devise programs in sync with the ever-changing external environment and digital disruptions. Mapping L&D ROI is imperative to help L&D efforts achieve their full potential.”